1840."] Journal of a trip through Kunawur, §c. 565 



rigors of the winter season. Besides the furze there are few shrubs 

 met with, save the dog-rose, and a creeping plant called " Kabrah," 

 which spreads along the ground, bearing a large and beautiful white 

 flower. The rose is sometimes cut and stored up also with the furze 

 for fuel. Growing wild over the almost barren hills, amidst the loose 

 and crumbling soils, is a small plant bearing a pea-shaped flower, 

 of a pale rose colour, the leaves of which when bruised are thought 

 by the shepherds to be efficacious in the curing of maggots in sheep, 

 and which when applied to the infected part, is said to cause the 

 insects to drop out ; it is called " Taksha," 



A traveller journeying through this district in the summer months, 

 would fancy, from the few sheep and cattle seen about the vil- 

 lages, that flocks and herds were wanting; the fact however is far 

 otherwise. In June when I passed up and down the valley of the 

 Spiti, I scarcely saw either a sheep or a goat, excepting the flocks 

 laden with grain, and which did not belong to the district. Of 

 cows there were a few, but yakchas* none. This is owing to the 

 custom which prevails, not only here but in Hungrung and Kunawur 

 also, of sending the flocks to the higher regions, where, when the 

 snows have melted away, a rich vegetation soon springs up, afford- 

 ing a pasture that the lower tracts cannot produce. Grasses, po- 

 tentillce, wild onions, rhubarb, and herbs of various kinds abound 

 over these tracts, intermingled with the furze, and extending to the 

 height of 16,000 feet above the sea. The sheep and goats are tend- 

 ed jiuring the day, and penned at night, sometimes on the open 

 mountain side, guarded by several dogs, or enclosed in temporary 

 huts called Dogress. 



The yaks, on the other hand, are turned loose on the pastures, 

 and left at large to roam at will, and to take care of themselves 

 during the summer, and are only reclaimed when the ploughing 

 season or the winter arrives. They are employed both as beasts 

 of burthen and in the tilling of the ground, though former travel- 

 lers have denied that they are used in husbandry. For the former 

 purpose, however, ponies and goats or sheep are preferred, as the 

 yak cannot travel for many consecutive days without being knock- 

 ed up. In the plough they have much more the appearance of 

 * Yak or Yakcha is the name of the Tartaric or Yak ox (Bos poephagus.) 



